Robs Blog: Chasing Kona: 8 Weeks to go

18

Oct

2017

As we hit the last ramp I came off John’s wheel like I’d been shot out of a cannon.
I was out of the saddle.
Full gas.
Dropping major watt bombs all over the road.
Feeling like a legend in my own underpants.
I was sure I had it this time.
He wasn’t going to come around me with this attack.
Then out of the corner of my eye I could see him come by me and instead of inching up alongside he shot past and immediately opened a bike length.
It seems John had the bigger watt bombs and he was busily dropping them all over the joint.
I pushed harder and stabilised the gap. I still had the legs to hammer all the way to the top but not quite enough to close him down.
I held him at just over a bike length all the way to the top but for the second time in two years John took the final and all important climb to the top of Howth head. The one that everyone remembers.
Next year I’m just gonna push him off the damn bike into the bushes at the foot of the climb.

That little showdown was on Sunday. I’d had four days and almost 700km on the bike since Thursday. I’d also gotten a couple of swims and a run done. It made up the biggest training block I’ve done in a long time and I was pretty happy with how I was handling it.
Happy with all except the fact that John had managed to scalp me at the top of every climb bar one and if I’m honest that was only because I had a bit of a head start on him.
I did however take the only flat sprint of the week, but that is little consolation for someone who considers themselves a climber first and a sprinter not at all.
I am consoling myself with the thought that it was a really solid block of training and despite the fact that Friday was a 3k swim, 162k bike and a 6k run I felt none the worse for wear on Saturday or Sunday which had a combined 330k of riding.

Chasing Kona eBook available

From smoker to back of the pack triathlete to the Ironman World Championships.

Read about how I overcame all of the odds and discovered what it would take to get to the Ironman World Championships – my eBook is now available to buy as an eBook on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes

Monday 11th

Off
Energy 8/10
Motivation 7/10
Work 10 hours
Sleep 8 hours. Good

Tuesday 12th 1:00 (1)

Run 1:00 14k inc 2x5k tempo

Such a difference to what happened on Sunday. I was in the UK for the day with Trek Bikes for their 2018 product launch and had hoped that I might sneak out for an hour or so at lunch for a run. I managed to get out in the afternoon and headed to a local park with a 6k flat lap around a lake. I’d planned on including 2x5k hard/tempo intervals, similar to what I’d done a couple of weeks ago as part of my long run.
On that day I’d done 3x5k and did each of them in 22:09, 21:39, 22:35. That was as part of a 32k run and it was on a lumpier course so today’s should in theory be a little quicker.
I set out at a steady pace to warm up and was relieved to see my pace comfortably at about 5 min/k for the first 2k.
I was relieved to discover that I hadn’t mysteriously lost all of my fitness and last Sunday’s dreadful run was just an aberration. When I picked up the pace to start the first 5k interval I felt good and settled into just over 4 minute/k pace. I thought I should comfortably hit about 21 minutes for each 5k.
The speed came easily right from the start and I spent the first 15 minutes holding back a little, afraid that if I started too fast I’d fall apart in the second one. I came in with 20:50 for the first 5k and it felt easy. I decided to push a little harder for the second one to see if I could hold it.
The effort was a little higher but not crazy. I reckoned I could have done a third 5k but whether I would have held onto that pace to the end is open to question.
Either way it felt like a really good session and I finished with a big buzz what with all of the endorphins and adrenaline dumping through my system.
Kilometre splits for those interested.
4:14, 4:05, 4:11, 4:14, 4:06 (20:50)
4:04, 3:57, 4:07, 4:01, 4:06 (20:15)

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Chasing Kona eBook available

From smoker to back of the pack triathlete to the Ironman World Championships.

Read about how I overcame all of the odds and discovered what it would take to get to the Ironman World Championships – my eBook is now available to buy as an eBook on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes